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Lawyer wakes up $25M richer after hilarious bank blunder

A lawyer became a millionaire overnight after her bank bungled up one of her direct debits.

Clare Wainwright, 26, woke up on October 25 to discover millions of dollars had mysteriously been deposited into her bank account.

The money was transferred there when NAB – with whom she’d taken out a home loan – messed up a repayment.

Many of Ms Wainwright's friends joked about ways she could get away with not giving the money back. (Facebook) ()

NAB sent an automatic request for her loan payment yesterday, before suddenly dropping $24,544,780 into her account – enough to pay off her mortgage and then some.

“When NAB accidentally pays out your entire mortgage, and gives you an extra $24.5mil to redraw. Do I skip the country??” Ms Wainwright joked on Facebook yesterday, alongside a photo of the transaction.

Speaking with the TODAY Show this morning Ms Wainwright – who works as a lawyer for O'Brien, Connors & Kennett in Dee Why - said she never entertained any fantasies about running off with the money.

“I actually never considered keeping it at any stage,” she admitted with a laugh.

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“The joys of being a lawyer is that you sort of look at something like that and work and that, no, you probably can’t keep it.”

As a lawyer, Ms Wainwright said she knew she'd never be able to keep the money. (Facebook) ()

Ms Wainwright said the first thing she did was call her mortgage broker and explain the situation.

“He then got straight in contact with the bank and they said that someone would look into it within the next three business days,” she said.

“I still haven’t heard from NAB at any stage, (I was) thinking maybe they’d get in contact with me and say ‘woops, we messed that one up’.”

Ms Wainwright joked that as a “reward for honesty” she hoped they’d let her earn interest on the money before taking it back, but alas, it disappeared out of her account in the early hours of this morning.

Ms Wainwright’s Facebook friends weren’t quite as honest minded as her, however, quickly providing ways for her to get away with keeping the money.

NAB removed the money from her account this morning. (Facebook) ()

One friend gave her a list of countries that “don't have a extradition treaty with Australia”.

“Head to one of them and live out the rest of your life with the free $24 mil,” he wrote.

“ Go become Cuban royalty,” another suggested.

“She just promised to buy her dear old mother a reasonably priced island . What a kind daughter!” her mum chimed in.